USDA Food and Nutrition Services BPA

Sage is one of six BPA holders for USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) agency, supporting a variety of teams and programs including the Office of Communications; National School Lunch Program (NSLP); the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). For all contracts, Sage has delivered PSA communications and marketing services targeting pregnant and postpartum women, low-income families, infants and children and pre-K through Grade 12 students.

Office of Communications

Sage supports a myriad of marketing communication services across media research; social listening and analysis; cross-channel social media outreach and content; video production, both with animation and capture of live footage; web copy; graphics; branding and theme art; communications collateral; external communications and engagement plans; talking points; earned media, paid media; media training; communications training; satellite media tours; and external and government affairs support. 

All efforts focus on program and PSA-type communications surrounding FNS’s 16 federal nutrition assistance programs aiding in health and nutrition education for Americans. Over the past three years, Sage has conducted satellite media tours and developed a variety of social media copy, motion-graphic videos, social media graphics, one pagers, infographics and more, to raise awareness of nutritional assistance to income-eligible families, pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children; nutritional standard updates for school meals based on the USDA and HHS-produced 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans; food distribution to income-eligible households living on Native American reservations; and nationally-led programs like Farm to School and National School Lunch Week.

NSLP

For NSLP, Sage ideated and developed a suite of digital and print creative promoting the program’s 2022 National School Breakfast Week campaign. This week-long campaign celebrated the importance of healthy school-provided breakfast for students. Sage proposed a concept that was fun, inviting and engaging for public and nonprofit private school kids. Our challenge was to design compelling creative that would grab students’ attention and spark conversation. Sage designed a cartoon, illustrative look and feel, bringing familiar school lunch items to life—and carried those illustrations across social media graphics, infographics, an instruction guide for teachers, and a set of 40 interactive photo props. We added personality to a bowl of cereal, a smile to a stack of pancakes, eyes to fruits and more.

Sage’s efforts for NSLP resulted in a Hermes Creative Gold Award.

WIC

For WIC, FNS needed Sage’s support in producing a series of educational training booklets for those who provide services to low-income pregnant and new families, and to infants and children ages 5 and younger who are at nutritional risk. To support these efforts, Sage first ideated and pitched several potential design concepts, key verbal themes, objectives and positionings of the reports. Once approved, we then laid out strategically and thoughtfully designed booklets that carried the chosen verbal themes throughout all materials. We established graphic standards to present a strong, consistent brand, including fonts, image styles, page formats, text formats, photo captions, footnotes, infographics and more. Sage proposed clean, easy-to-follow designs to present the content clearly, and featured rich, full-bleed photography of real providers and families. While this effort did not require a custom photo shoot, Sage guided FNS through the selection of existing photography and provided post-production photo treatments such as resizing, cropping and retouching. We prepared all materials for print and web distribution, ensuring Section 508 compliance.

Sage’s efforts for WIC resulted in a Hermes Creative Gold Award.

CACFP

Through its Team Nutrition initiative, and as part of CACFP, FNS also develops and updates science-based training, technical assistance, and communication materials to provide timely, science-based nutrition guidance to menu planners, caregivers, and educators throughout the United States. These efforts help shape and improve nutritional habits of all Americans, especially vulnerable populations. Sage was contracted to help USDA FNS develop and update resources for CACFP operators to support the implementation of CACFP meal patterns, the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and healthy mealtime practices. Our scope comprised a 15+ page Operator Booklet distributed amongst educators; series of newsletters and posters for both parents and educators; a PowerPoint template; and animated GIFs for distribution across channels. In addition to these resources, a large component of our work involved a custom, on-site, multi-day photo shoot to produce an image library for use in the new resources and to refresh the look of CACFP outreach products in the future.

Sage’s efforts for CACFP resulted in a Hermes Creative Platinum Award.